Art Temptations...

No Food today!

I was enroute to a cafe, as I usually am,

when I passed this pretty art shop on 20 rue Soufflot 75005

The little boxed pen set entitled, "Madame de Pompadour" called out to me...

Look at these giant Chinese calligraphy brushes hanging in the window!Any Paris art store is just as irresistable as any Paris patisserie... So many colors/flavors...
So many things to look at, to touch and maybe buy...
And No calories! Calligraphie is their specialty at Dubois SARL it seems... Boxes and boxes of pen and ink sets...YUM!A demo of how to open the Limoge ink bottle :)Couldn't she tell I was sold hook, line and sinker? If you want to be tempted...
Then you can get an expresso at Cafe Le Comptoir du Pantheon.

More Color Pigment Stores

Did you play with your food? My family was long gone from the dinner table while I was lining up peas in rows. Lots of people don't take artists seriously. And rightly so. We play with paint. Playing with pigments is primal, like making mud pies. Once you start playing you can't stop. And you're always looking for that ultimate art store - the answer to your dreams.

You might need a gondola to get there. I saw this shop first on Pigments through the Ages When I got to Venice I went searching. The Tourist office said the owner had died, but a similar shop could be found.

Lauren of Mâitress was just in Venice and took this mystery picture of the shop.

My first foreign 'candy store' was near The British Museum. I used to go to the BM to visit the master drawings collection. Afterwards I'd visit Cornelissen's looking for treasures. Their wall of glass pigment jars enthralls you the minute you walk inside.

When I was 5 - 7 years old, my dad dropped me every Saturday morning at finger painting class at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After class I wandered in the Period Rooms till my Dad picked me up.

The Indian Temple room

The Japanese Ceremonial Teahouse

The French Monestary

These rooms provided my 1st taste of travel. It's never left me. My family called me "dreamy" and "head-in-the-clouds" No wonder. Many thanks to writer, Lauren of Mâitress and painter, R Chunn who helped me tell this story.

My Candy (Art) Store

I found this carton à dessin (portfolio) in the Marais and I liked it so much I bought two. The writing/ecriteur is by the artist, BEN. It says, contient peut-être un vrai chef-d'oeuvre/perhaps there's a masterpiece inside.
The jaunes pages in the upper left, I ripped out a few years ago. Don't follow my bad example. The adresses of Parisien art stores (les magasin du beaux-arts) are outdated but still fun to look at. I tend to save old scraps of paper. The watercolor is thé et chocolat painted in Paris.This is my "candy store". It doesn't hurt that it's in Paris. Any art store anywhere is an adventure. Like the shop in Arezzo, it doesn't matter what you buy so long as you buy something. I found the Maison Gattegno by chance(permanently CLOSED), while looking for a nearby branch of Sennelier, which was closed.
It's on 13, rue de la Grande Chaumière is not by chance. Across the street is the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere attended by Modigliani and Calder. Paul Gauguin shared a studio with Alphonse Mucha. You can still walk in and attend a sketch class without registration fees.
A very traditional old art shop - the interior is dark. A flashlight could be helpful, but the owner knows his stock and can find what you can't see. I love the traditional plaster casts in the window. They remind me early days at PA Academy of Fine Arts, when castdrawing was obligatory. I regret not doing my value studies back then. This bulletin board of art class (stage, cours) ads hung by the door of the fermé (closed) Sennelier. Two art stores + an art school all on 1 street + artist's ads. A traveling artist's dream.Art stores fill you with nostalgia. You'll never forget the 1st time you paid for an "Artist" quality tube of paint and felt like a pro. Mel Bochner, a terrific artist, told me that Franz Kline was so crazy for the old,long-gone Torch art shop on 15th street in the village, that he named a painting after it, "Torch".
I'm amazed at this elegant boite d'aquarelle/watercolor box in the vitrine/window. Le prix/price is pretty amazing too. 924 euros. I was so excited to see all these Blockx godets porcelain watercolor pans or paint-filled 'ashtrays' that I saw at Café Deux Magots, my camera shook.  An art store will do that to you.